Jack Stauber 1

URBS 350

July 12, 2022

“Sprawling Slums in Nairobi Kenya”

Mathare, a slum in Nairobi, is a beautiful place filled with hope and a desire for citizens

to live a happier and healthier life but unfortunately many live in pretty poor conditions ranging

from not having adequate infrastructure, little to no running water or food and many don’t have

the privilege to receive a proper education. According to Reliefweb, this crisis is further

exacerbated by “poor infrastructure, overcrowding, few resources and poor sanitation facilities is

made worse by a high disease and morbidity burden, characterized by high levels of malnutrition

among children and the aged and high rate of communicable diseases like typhoid, malaria,

dysentery and tuberculosis.” Most families in Kenya can’t afford medical care and so many

suffer from untreated diseases along with the fact that most of the health facilities in Kenya are

understaffed, unequipped and limited in their scope to handle situations properly. According to

Reliefweb, “vivid images can be seen of kids in tattered clothes playing with raw waste flowing

from a burst sewage pipe” and “uninsulated electricity cables hang precariously in people’s

single-story houses”.

The residents know the dangers that come with living in such predicaments but they have

little choice in changing their outcomes because they aren’t part of the national power grid and

so they endure these conditions in the hopes things will eventually get better. Streets are littered

with garbage because there are no proper waste facilities or areas to throw garbage out and so

citizens just throw it anywhere they can which of course has led to many sanitary problems and

children getting sick from playing with or eating the garbage. Many women in the slums can’t go

to work because they are constantly having to look after their sick children and so many can’t

escape poverty because they aren’t making an income and the unhygienic conditions are only
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exacerbating the problem further. There are very few toilets available in the slums of Mathare

and all of them are privatized meaning residents have to pay a small fee of about 6 cents, which

many can’t afford to do. According to Ann Marie Swai from Concern Worldwide, “a significant

number of people, those who are extremely poor living here are forced to compromise their

long-term wellbeing in order to satisfy their short term survival” and this can include pulling

their kids out from school, engaging in prostitution, and etc.

According to the UN World Health Organization, “children in Nairobi slums are two and

a half times more likely to die before their 5th birthday than in other parts of the city”. There are

many mothers who can’t afford to feed their children and as a result malnourishment among the

young kids is very high for children especially under the age of 5. Health facilities don’t have the

resources to cope with these issues and many are helplessly dying because not enough care is

being put into providing adequate support for those in need. The fact is citizens living in these

slums don’t have the means to be self-sustainable or grow their own food and the price of food is

already so expensive which has pushed an already desperate populace into extreme poverty

making it very difficult for them to feed their families or pay for basic services such as school

fees, rent, and healthcare. While the price of food has gone up, wages have gone down

significantly in value forcing families to resort to any means possible in order to survive.

According to Reliefweb, “Beatrice Awuor, a resident who lives in Korogocho, another

one of Nairobi’s slums, has yet to obtain routine immunizations for her sixth-month-old baby”

because of frequent gang violence and muggings that occur in the streets. The nurses cannot

come to her neighborhood because the gangs will attack them and as a result the residents and

visitors who come are at their mercy. Because of the lack of jobs that are available in the slums,

many turn to violence to survive. The fact is under-policing, unemployment and or lack of
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services in the slums can be attributed to the hopelessness of dwellers who are having a hard

time connecting with state authorities. Within all crime lies a crisis and according to Aggrey

Nyange of University of Nairobi, it’s because of “displacement due to violent crime”. She goes

on to explain that “organized gangs and crime” that have occurred within the slums have left

many residents homeless and unable to access their homes and many are fearful that they will

die.

According to Lotus Africa LTD., “Drinking water is becoming scarce, especially for the

poor in Kenya. In this country, one third of the population does not have access to drinking water

and nearly two-thirds lack basic sanitation”. This in part has been because of mining plants that

have polluted and dumped toxic waste into rivers and lakes. According to Viola Chow of the

Borgen Project, “the combination of a dry climate and a rapidly growing population has caused a

water crisis in Kenya’s slums, where citizens in poverty live in informal settlements without

proper water infrastructure”. While it is true that 90% of the urban residents of Nairobi had clean

water in the 1990’s, this has significantly fallen over the years to 50% as the city has seen its

population grow by 4x as much. As a result of the dwindling water, the city has tried to ration its

water supply beginning in 2017 and the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company “estimates

that supply still falls 25% short of demand”. Due to the increased migration of residents coming

in from rural areas and everywhere else, the urban population in cities exploded and because of

the lack of proper water infrastructure and piping, it has led to many not having water or

retrieving it from questionable sources whether that be from venders or from water surfaces

which often contain harmful bacteria or contaminants.

Many private nonprofits and organizations have tried to provide long-term relief but

many projects fail within their first year. Many women living within the Nairobi slums are given
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the role of scouting for water sources, often traveling long distances to provide for their families.

This in turn has led to worsening gaps in gender inequality within these areas and many residents

reported that they often spend extravagant amounts of money that they can’t afford to purchase

water from vendors who price gouge. Vendors have also been known to sell low quality water to

slum dwellers at a discount, which of course has caused health and sanitation problems within

these communities. However, not all is doom and gloom, there are many nonprofits and

organizations that have had a number of success in providing water for those in need and

according to the Borgen Project “Nonprofits and aid organizations” have been able to solve these

pressing issues by “directly engaging with local partnerships at the community level”. For

example, a nonprofit organization by the name of “Well Aware has been partnering with local

schools to drill wells,” which has increased the overall education rate by 34% and 58% for girls

on average.

This is great for the community because when kiosks are set up near a school, the

community as a whole will be able to satisfy their water needs as well. As a result of engaging

directly with local partners, projects that are constructed to solve the water crisis in Kenya’s

slums can be more responsive to the needs of those in poverty. According to Steve Kenei,

“Nairobi in 2016 had the lowest rates of absolute poverty at 16.7% compared to the national

average at 36.1%” which is a testament to the massive improvements that the city has undergone

to afford its citizens and those in the slums a better standard of living. According to USAID, it

was reported that the “Kenyan government drastically increased their spending on the water

sector” to meet the $14 billion requirement that is needed for the next 15 years but international

aid and humanitarian efforts are needed to bridge the remaining gap.
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Bibliography
Burdett, Matt. “Case Study: Urban Problems in Nairobi, Kenya.” GeographyCaseStudy,
7 May 2020,
https://www.geographycasestudy.com/case-study-urban-problems-in-nairobi-kenya
Chow, Viola. “Fighting the Water Crisis in Kenya’s Slums.” The Borgen Project, 29
July 2021, https://borgenproject.org/water-crisis-in-kenyas-slums.
Kenei, Steve. “The Needs of Kenyans by County: Exploring the Latest Poverty Data.”
Development Initiatives, 30 May 2018,
https://devinit.org/blog/the-needs-of-kenyans-by-county-exploring-the-latest-poverty-data
Lotus Africa Ltd. “Water Crisis In Kenya 2019 - The Causes, Effects And Solutions.” Lotus
Africa Ltd, 12 Feb. 2019,
https://lotus.co.ke/water-crisis-in-kenya-causes-effects-solutions.
Reliefweb. “The Hidden Crisis in Urban Slums - Kenya.” Reliefweb, 4 Dec. 2013,
https://reliefweb.int/report/kenya/hidden-crisis-urban-slums.
World Bank Group. “Informal Enterprises in Kenya.” Jan 2016,
https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/262361468914023771/pdf/106986-WP-P15
1793-PUBLIC-Box.pdf
World Bank Group. “Poverty Incidence in Kenya Declined Significantly, but Unlikely to Be
Eradicated by 2030.” World Bank, 11 Apr. 2018,
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/kenya/publication/kenya-economic-update-povert
y-incidence-in-kenya-declined-significantly-but-unlikely-to-be-eradicated-by-2030.